What’s New in Adobe After Effects 26 & Premiere 26 — A Creative Catalyst for 2026

dobe just dropped major new releases of After Effects (26.0) and Premiere (26.0) — and they’re packed with updates that will reshape how editors and motion designers work. From next-generation AI tools to big quality-of-life improvements, here’s everything you need to know.

AI-Powered Object Mask
Adobe’s headline feature in Premiere 26 is Object Mask — a tool that lets you hover over a person or object, click once, and automatically generate a tracked mask across your clip. This eliminates much of the tedious keyframe work traditionally required for masking. 

Shape Masks Redesigned
Premiere’s classic Shape Masks (Ellipse, Rectangle, Pen) have been revamped with smoother bezier controls and up to 20× faster tracking, so you can create and refine masks far quicker than before. 

Frame.io V4 Inside Premiere
Collaboration gets a boost! The new Frame.io V4 panel now lives inside Premiere, letting teams share comments, media, and versions without leaving the timeline. 

Adobe Stock Integration
Browse, license, and import assets from Adobe Stock (including a huge library of free clips) right from Premiere’s interface. 

Enhanced Workflow Tools

• Audio tools, including One-Click Background Noise Removal via Adobe Podcast integration. 

These updates make Premiere more efficient for daily editing — especially when deadlines are tight and iterations are rapid.

SVG Import with Native Vector Editing
One of the biggest upgrades in After Effects 26 is native SVG file import. Rather than rasterizing SVGs, AE preserves vectors, gradients, strokes, and transparency — a huge win for motion designers pulling in assets from web or UI teams. 

Expanded Typography Controls
Variable font support has been supercharged: animate every font axis (weight, width, slant, etc.) with keyframes and expressions — perfect for dynamic motion typography work. 

Quality-of-Life Enhancements

• Improved Unmult effect for cleaner compositing by removing background pixels based on brightness thresholds. 
• Three new built-in audio effects (Gate, Compressor, Distortion). 
• Faster and more efficient high-performance preview playback that uses less disk space. 

Together, these updates make AE smoother, more powerful, and far easier to use for complex animation and compositing. 

What This Means for Your Workflow

Whether you’re cutting commercials, crafting title sequences, or building motion-graphics templates, both Premiere and After Effects 26 aim to remove friction and speed creativity:

Less repetitive manual work — thanks to intelligent masking and improved vector workflows. 
Better collaboration — through Frame.io and tighter CC ecosystem integration. 
More expressive tools — with variable font animation and audio effects directly in After Effects.

Pro Tip

If you’re in the middle of a deadline-driven project, consider testing these features on side projects first so you can incorporate them confidently into your pipeline. Tools like Object Mask and native SVG can dramatically improve finish quality — but workflows evolve best when tested and refined.

Upcoming Classes

At Ledet Training, we make sure you’re always learning on the latest versions of Adobe software — not outdated tools. Our instructors continuously update course materials so you can take full advantage of new features like AI masking, native SVG workflows, and modern motion-graphics tools the moment they’re released. Ready to level up your skills? View our upcoming Adobe After Effects training schedule and Adobe Premiere training schedule and start creating with confidence.